Samantha Byrne
Private Samantha "Sam" Byrne, also called "duchashka" or "lovely duchess" by the Gorasini, was a female Gear that fought in Delta-One during the Stranded Insurgency and the Lambent Invasion. Samantha was of the daughter of a Kashkuri liaison to the COG Army and a Tyran Gear.Gears of War: Anvil Gate Biography Early Life Sam was the daughter of Sgt.Samuel Byrne, a Tyran Gear, and Sheraya Byrne, who was of Kashkur origins and liaison for the COG at Anvil Gate.Gears of War: Anvil Gate pg Her father was killed during the Siege of Anvil Gate, despite being given a chance to flee with his pregnant wife. This left Sheraya to raise Sam alone, and as she grew up, she would tell Sam stories about how Anvegad burned during the Siege.Gears of War: Anvil Gate pg 317 Vectes and the Stranded Insurgency Off Duty at the Bar Fifteen years after Emergence Day, Sam was a Gear like her father. After the COG moved to Vectes, Sam was assigned to an EOD team commanded by Major Aleksander Reid due to her expertise in explosives. While off duty, she drank with CPO Frank Muller at the Main Mess Bar at Vectes Naval Base, where he taught her how to play navy chess. She tried to get Cpl.Damon Baird to join in, but he refused. Sam then returned to playing the chess game, which used shot glasses with either moonshine or rum in them as pieces, and drinking whenever a piece was taken.Gears of War: Anvil Gate pg 3-5 Battle of Vectes Shortly after this, Sam went on patrol on a Rat bike. She discovered tracks and an explosive device north of the hydro plant, and could tell it was remote detonated, meaning that Stranded Insurgents were nearby, and worked out the position they had taken in the tree line. She called this in to Lt.Anya Stroud and Sgt.Bernadette Mataki, and they arranged to ambush the Stranded with the help of Echo Squad.Gears of War: Anvil Gate pg 30-32 However, Anya and Bernie's Packhorse was hit by another roadside bomb, and they were unable to help Sam and Echo. Sam commed them and told them they were in position, and were preparing to launch the attack.Gears of War: Anvil Gate pg 37 Unfortunately, the Stranded managed to escape, but Sam was able to disarm the bomb and salvage the materials.Gears of War: Anvil Gate pg 41 A few hours later, the Stranded had set off several roadside bombs and launched ambushes of their own. Sgt.Marcus Fenix, Bernie, and Baird were pursuing a group of Stranded on foot with the help of Mac, a hunting dog, and KR-239. Sam offered her assistance to them, and headed to her position on her Rat-bike. The Raven gave her directions to the Stranded, but by the time she reached them, Delta had already engaged them. Sam ended the battle by ramming the last Stranded standing with her bike. She jumped off the bike and pressed her chainsaw to the guys throat just in case. Marcus was annoyed with her, since they were supposed to take the Stranded alive, but she confirmed that she had not killed the target. She helped the rest of the squad load the three Stranded they had captured into the Raven, and headed back to New Jacinto.Gears of War: Anvil Gate pg 57-64 Patrolling the Sea Three days later, Sam went with Baird, Muller, and Cpl.Dominic Santiago aboard the Amirale Enka, an Gorasini patrol boat, to guard the fishing trawlers from Pelruan. Sam was nervous about going on the boat, but Baird told her not to worry. Once they boarded, Baird introduced her as being there to clean and cook, which hurt Sam's feelings, but she tried not to let Baird see that. She threatened the Gorasini sailor to stop checking her out. She then took up position on a mounted gun on the foredeck, where she briefly talked with Dom as the ship got underway.Gears of War: Anvil Gate pg 65-67 She remained on the gun all morning, until one of the trawlers, the Levanto, exploded. No Stranded were detected on the radar, and Baird worried it may have been a mine. Sam had Dom take over on the gun since she was the ordnance expert, and got into a Marlin with Baird to check out the remains of the ship. She determined by the debris that it hadn't been a mine, which made her and Baird even more worried about what it was.Gears of War: Anvil Gate pg 71-74 After they returned to the Amirale Enka, Sam went back to manning the gun, and watched as Baird sorted through the wreckage they had recovered for a clue as to what had happened.Gears of War: Anvil Gate pg 112 She joined Dom in discussing with Captain Quentin Michaelson what had happened to the ship, and she doubted it was Locust as Dom hoped. Sam told him the Locust couldn't cross the ocean in their barges and that they would have seen or detected any Leviathans. Michaelson agreed with her assessment, but told her that he was not ruling anything out.Gears of War: Anvil Gate pg 114 Keeping the Peace Marcus then contacted Sam and Dom, and asked for help in dealing with a crowd from Pelruan that was growing agitated over the Levanto's destruction. They found Chairman Richard Prescott and Col.Victor Hoffman and a line of other Gears trying to defuse the crowd and stop them from entering the Stranded community in New Jacinto that had been given amnesty. They were unsuccessful, and Sam began manuvering to get a clear shot at any member of the crowd who turned violent. Luckily, Marcus managed to get them to disperse when he told them that Stranded had not sunk the ship, and made them understand that there was another unknown threat out there. The crowd dispersed, and Sam complimented Marcus on doing a good job dealing with them. However, there was already more trouble starting near the Stranded ghetto. Sam and the others found Pvt.Dizzy Wallin trying to keep the peace between some Stranded and Gorasini, while some of Jacinto's citizens watched. However, a brawl erupted, and the New Jacinto citizens attacked Dizzy. Marcus cannoned into the brawl to separate everyone, and Sam was punched in the face by a Stranded women while trying to help him by pushing the Stranded back. The fight ended when Sam, Marcus, and Dom had each pinned a seperate fight from each group down. Dizzy yelled at the Jacinto citizens, appalled that they did not consider him one of them despite fighting for them. As the ashamed citizens walked away, Sam went up to Dizzy and asked him follow her to the bar so they could get drunk and forget about the civilians.Gears of War: Anvil Gate pg 115-120 Lambent Invasion Back at Sea and Patroling the Stranded Shanty Town The next day, Sam went back out with Dom on the smallest fishing trawler, M70, with the rest of Delta divided up on several other ships.Gears of War: Anvil Gate pg 126 During the trip, the ship that Marcus and Bernie were on, the Coral Star, hauled up a Lambent creature. They and the crew were forced to evacuate the boat, and the ship was destroyed when the Lambent exploded.Gears of War: Anvil Gate pg 130 After they returned to VNB, they found Reid waiting for them on the pier. He ordered Marcus and Bernie to be debriefed, and ordered Baird to take Sam, Cole, and Dom on patrol. As they walked through the Stranded's living area, Sam noted that it wasn't as bad as some of the places she had lived in, and asked Baird what was in the center of the island. He told her it was a dead volcano, with a lot of forest and caves on it. Soon after this, a truck of Gorasini soldiers arrived, and dumped off the bodies of Insurgents they had killed in a recent battle. Sam and Cole quickly blocked the Stranded crowd off from the Gorasini, as Baird tried to convince the Gorasini commander, Yanik, to leave. A crowd of Jacinto citizens also appeared to watch what was happening, and Sam tried to get them to go back inside. The squad stayed there until the Stranded had taken the bodies away, in order to make sure no more violence erupted.Gears of War: Anvil Gate pg 145-150 Battle of the Emerald Spar Platform A few days later, Lambent Stalks were spotted heading towards the Emerald Spar Imulsion Platform. Sam was one of twenty Gears sent on three King Ravens to backup the platform's defenders. After arriving, she swapped ammo with Cpl.Jace Stratton.Gears of War: Anvil Gate pg 201 Once the battle began, Sam went with Baird and Cole into the lower decks of the platform, and found a door where a bunch of Lambent Polyps were trying to break through. They planned to ambush them, but Sam was worried what would happen if they set off something explosive. Baird told her it didn't matter, that if they didn't shoot the Polyps, they would kill them and set something explosive off themselves. They opened the hatch and fired into the mass of Polyps. When they couldn't see anymore, Sam peeked around the corner and shot a couple more, and told the other two they were clear. They began clearing corridor after corridor of an endless number of Polyps. As they fought, the platform suffered more and more damage, with the Polyps explosions destroying bulkhead and bridges, and also setting off fires and igniting Imulsion. After assisting Aurelie Dersau in fighting a group of Polyps, Sam was contacted by Marcus and told to ask Baird how many Polyps the Stalks carried, but Baird was unable to figure it out. KR-239 managed to destroy the first Stalk, but another emerged and began pouring more Polyps onto the platform, and the Sam, Baird, and Cole continued to clear corridors.Gears of War: Anvil Gate pg 206-212 They eventually had to abandon the platform when it began to take too much damage, and Sam escaped with the rest of the Gears and many of the crew aboard an evacuation boat.Gears of War: Anvil Gate pg 216 Calm Before the Storm The next day, Sam was patrolling Vectes on her Rat-bike, and offered to pick Bernie up after she killed three Stranded, but Bernie refused the ride.Gears of War: Anvil Gate pg 251 A few days later, she was taking a break and drinking with Dizzy in the mess hall when Dom arrived, and asked her if she could modify his tattoo of a heart with Maria's name in it. She agreed, and gathered her supplies and met him in a storeroom at the barracks. He was unsure of what he wanted done, but just wanted something to mark that she was gone. Sam understood, and began working on transforming the tattoo. When she finished, it had become an angel cradling Maria's name, and Dom was overcome with how perfect it was. As Sam began walking away, Dom told her he owed her, but she told him he didn't, and that doing that for him had made her day.Gears of War: Anvil Gate pg 310-311 Deployed to Pelruan After a suspected Leviathan was spotted heading toward Vectes, Sam was sent to Pelruan with Bernie. She rode her Rat-bike to the town, following Bernie, who was in a Packhorse. They stopped outside of the barracks and reported to Anya, who had been placed in charge of the garrison in the town. Sam walked with Bernie though the town, taking notice of all of the wooden houses. She remarked how that the city would burn if it came under attack, and told Bernie about how her mom had told her about how the wooden houses of Anvegad burned during the Siege of Anvil Gate. They walked past a Pendulum Wars memorial, where she and Bernie stopped to pay their respects. After dropping Mac off at William Berenz's, Sam and Bernie headed to the signals office. They found Rossi there, and he sent them to an observation post on the western cliffs of the town. While up there, Sam spotted a Leviathan, and quickly contacted Anya and informed her about it.Gears of War: Anvil Gate pg 315-321 Battle of Pelruan She and Bernie headed back down to the town, when they suddenly saw the Leviathan in the harbor. They discovered it was Lambent, and saw it begin sending Polyps ashore. Sam and Bernie began attacking them, and were soon joined by Anya, Rossi, and other Gears. KR Three-Three arrived to support them, but it was destroyed by the Leviathan. Sam and the others killed the Polyps that had come ashore, and the Leviathan disappeared.Gears of War: Anvil Gate pg 322-324 Sam kept an eye out for it, and reported to the others when it returned.Gears of War: Anvil Gate pg 334 When Gorasini reinforcements arrived, Sam worried about them and the locals trying to kill each other. Yanik, a Gorasini squad leader who had taken a liking to Sam, arrived and joked to Sam that his life was hers. Sam, amused, told him that she had always wanted a meatshield, and warned him to stay away from the Pelruan veterans, since they hated the Gorasini.Gears of War: Anvil Gate pg 337 Sam retrieved her Rat-bike, and raced around the Polyp positions firing her Lancer, while Bernie and Anya did the same in the Packhorse.Gears of War: Anvil Gate pg 349-350 Eventually, KR-239 managed to kill the Leviathan, ending the battle. Sam and Bernie headed to Berenz's house, and went to sleep.Gears of War: Anvil Gate pg 355 She returned to VNB the next day on her Rat-bike.Gears of War: Anvil Gate pg 428 Battle at Anvil Gate Sometime later, Sam accompanied Marcus, Cole, and Anya during a battle against the Locust and Lambent at Anvil Gate. They fought their way to the entrance of the facility, where they avoided a Lambent Berserker, which Baird fired upon with the Hammer of Dawn. Byrne regrouped with the rest of Delta Squad inside the facility, and they were joined by Victor Hoffman, Dominic Santiago, and Baird. They watched as the Berserker pounded on the gate, and then jumped atop the facility wall and leapt at the Gears. Personality and Traits Sam felt that she had to prove she was willing to take more risk than the male Gears, something that Col.Victor Hoffman thought of as a liability unless Sam had a good commander.Gears of War: Anvil Gate pg 14 Her accent also made her sound even more aggressive than she already was.Gears of War: Anvil Gate pg 31 Sam was a master at giving people tattoos.Gears of War: Anvil Gate pg 311 Behind the scenes *Sam is one of the playable female gears (the other announced ones being Anya Stroud and Bernadette Mataki) that will appear in Gears of War 3, the first time Gears of War features female gears in gameplay. [http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/109/1097009p1.html IGN: E3 2010: Microsoft Press Conference Gears of War 3 Demo] *Byrne wears the same type of armor as Anya Stroud. *Byrne is voiced by Claudia Black. http://g4tv.com/comiccon2010/panels-and-live-blogs/gears-of-war-3/77 G4: '' Gears Of War 3 Comic-Con 2010 Panel'' References Category:Gear Soldier Category:Females Category:Characters Category:Tyran Category:Kashkuri Category:COG